Extending the operating range of an electric vehicle is desirable to make electric vehicles commercially successful. One way of achieving this is to minimize the energy requirements of the vehicle while in use. Lighter materials, higher efficiency motors and aerodynamic styling have been employed to reduce energy use. But these features do not reduce or eliminate the energy requirement to maintain a desired interior cabin temperature. U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,139 discloses the use of a remotely controlled timer for automatically starting an internal combustion engine and subsequently controlling the climate control system based on predetermined temperature settings. This system provides a pre-warmed or pre-cooled car for added comfort to the operator over a conventional starting system. A problem associated with systems incorporating timers and remote activation signals for their operation is their continuing requirement for operator input. The system disclosed requires the operator to manually set timers and to activate the system.
It is also desirable to optimize the battery charging of an electric vehicle to take maximum advantage of reduced cost time of day energy rates and to insure the battery is sufficiently charged for the next anticipated use of the vehicle. Timers do not consider the battery state of charge and the optimum charging parameters to deliver the most efficient energy transfer rate possible. It is desirable to have a system that would automatically determine the information necessary to automatically implement any available efficiencies. It would be further desirable to have a system that would automatically invoke any efficiencies without reliance on regular operator input.